I wonder what is going on with the DeltaWing Project.Any news when we see the car driven in real?And will it only take part in LeMans?

Is anyone half-expecting them to take the car out of the garage for the first lap of practice, only then to realise that the doubters were right and the car can't actually turn tight corners after all?

It's going to probably be the slowest car on the grid by far, I don't even think fuel efficiency will save it. But it's nice to see something interesting happen once in awhile

It will be the ultimate test of their PR, they claim the car is capable of better pace than LMP2 cars (someone even said something about a LM target laptime of 3:37, and last year's fastest LMP2s couldn't crack 3:40).

The amount of vitriol and hatred towards the Delta Wing in other places on the Web however is quite staggering, it shocked me more than the car itself.

It will be the ultimate test of their PR, they claim the car is capable of better pace than LMP2 cars (someone even said something about a LM target laptime of 3:37, and last year's fastest LMP2s couldn't crack 3:40).

The amount of vitriol and hatred towards the Delta Wing in other places on the Web however is quite staggering, it shocked me more than the car itself.

Yeah it's weird, I don't see why people are willing to go as far as hate something like this. Me personally I find it very interesting because it's all new and shiny, but even if you don't, you don't have to hate it.

The amount of vitriol and hatred towards the Delta Wing in other places on the Web however is quite staggering, it shocked me more than the car itself.

Indeed. It perhaps gives us younger chaps (or in fact just those of us not based in Indiana) some idea of the shock and surprise a little rear-engined car at the Indy 500 must've caused. However it doesn't have the fallback position of affronts-to-traditionalists that it's plainly a quicker and better concept than what's gone before. It might be quicker on the track, but it needs its own special rulebook guest entry.

It makes us consider the artificiality and narrowness of the design opportunities left open to modern race teams though. The Schoenberg of sportscar racing.

Strakka Racing's HPD shaken down at Snetterton before heading to Sebring. With... transparent shark fin? Didn't we once have this debate when it came to F1 shark fins, and it turned out to be an optical illusion?

"Sometimes computers can leg you up pretty badly," Bowlby remarks. "So I ran down to Hobbytown USA in Castleton here in Indianapolis. It's a great model shop and I bought two suitable high-performance, radio-controlled model cars. I modified one of them to have a single front wheel with the weight distribution that it looked like we needed from a simulation standpoint. I compared a conventional four-wheeled car to this Delta shaped three-wheeler and the three-wheeler was extraordinarily good. What we had seen in simulation actually worked in reality.

"Every aircraft after that ended up having the main undercarriage widely-spaced and placed further rearwards with a single nosewheel so you could haul on the anchors and have a stable condition under braking. Certainly we found under simulation that's exactly what you end up with--a very stable car under braking. So suddenly we had a car that out-accelerates and outbrakes the current car."

Obviously, some mistakes done in mentioning Le Mans (no street cars, unless you want to call a fully-fledged GTE car a "street car", and 56 cars at the start, not 46), but good to see that Le Mans has been put at the top of a top-ten list of sporting events worldwide. If it has been posted before, my apologies.

Maybe they are of the opinion that there is a reason why cars (especially racing cars) have the wheels at the corners and are usually as wide as possible...

But if you have a very large proportion of the mass over the back of the car then the front wheels have very little inertia and will become much more responsive. Not only that but you can also out-accelerate the other cars because you've got more load over the driven wheels. This configuration also gives more stability under braking.

I thought it was an intriguing race, rather than an exciting one. Hat off to Audi, all cars finished - so that is quite something. A few points:

In the wet early part of the race, the e-tron Quattros just waltzed away - which was impressive. However, it seems that they are wearing their tyres more heavily....which is why the Toyota will have it's hybrid system through the rear wheels. And has already been said, the balance of performance of petrol v diesel.......6 years on, and they can't get it right.

However, roll on Le Mans test day....and then the big one itself, and another Audi win. Not sure it's great for the sport mind you...

I thought it was an intriguing race, rather than an exciting one. Hat off to Audi, all cars finished - so that is quite something. A few points:

In the wet early part of the race, the e-tron Quattros just waltzed away - which was impressive. However, it seems that they are wearing their tyres more heavily....which is why the Toyota will have it's hybrid system through the rear wheels. And has already been said, the balance of performance of petrol v diesel.......6 years on, and they can't get it right.

However, roll on Le Mans test day....and then the big one itself, and another Audi win. Not sure it's great for the sport mind you...

It's not just a question of petrol vs diesel and equalisation, just look at the Audi's aero package compared to it's nearest 'challenger' the Rebellion Lola. They're worlds apart, like the difference between the Red Bull RB8 and the HRT F112. Lola are a great constructor and have built a fantastic car for Rebellion, but they're not at manufacturer levels of spending and Audi are just able to make a better complete car.

I hope Toyota have got their car in shape, because with their expertise and level of spending they can't be ruled out for a good Le Mans, even with the 'lesser' petrol engine... the aero certainly looks promising, and they have a driver lineup that's capable of running with Audi.

I thought it was an intriguing race, rather than an exciting one. Hat off to Audi, all cars finished - so that is quite something. A few points:

In the wet early part of the race, the e-tron Quattros just waltzed away - which was impressive. However, it seems that they are wearing their tyres more heavily....which is why the Toyota will have it's hybrid system through the rear wheels. And has already been said, the balance of performance of petrol v diesel.......6 years on, and they can't get it right.

However, roll on Le Mans test day....and then the big one itself, and another Audi win. Not sure it's great for the sport mind you...

June 3, 2 weeks before the race. Back to the more recently-traditional date after last year, when they had the test day on Easter weekend in April... 8 hours of running as far as I'm aware, 4-4 with a lunch break in the middle.

Seems like a good move to me, and you have to wonder who pushed for it to be implemented.

A joint WEC/F1 engine project spreads the cost and allows F1 engine suppliers to supply engines to WEC teams, and possibly get some extra testing - but also allows an engine developed to the standards primarily for the WEC (Audi/Porsche, Honda or Toyota) to be supplied as a customer F1 engine.

And in terms of longevity the V6 turbos are being designed to last 5 full F1 race weekends each - so surviving a continuous 12-24 hour race is quite a reasonable expectation.

It's an old article and more or less speculation at this point. Engine regulations are free within the fuel flow limit, but only that article picked up on the possibility of F1 engines being theoretically allowed in LMP1.

To be honest, I don't want it to happen. If someone purposefully puts that into the regulations (which they HAVEN'T), it's a return to the early 1990s when cynical attempts were made to siphon away manufacturers from sportscars and into F1, killing Group C in the process. With the costs involved, it won't be like the 1970s when lots of teams were able to buy Cosworth DFVs to slot into their Group 6 cars, detune them and go racing at Le Mans.

It's an old article and more or less speculation at this point. Engine regulations are free within the fuel flow limit, but only that article picked up on the possibility of F1 engines being theoretically allowed in LMP1.

To be honest, I don't want it to happen. If someone purposefully puts that into the regulations (which they HAVEN'T), it's a return to the early 1990s when cynical attempts were made to siphon away manufacturers from sportscars and into F1, killing Group C in the process. With the costs involved, it won't be like the 1970s when lots of teams were able to buy Cosworth DFVs to slot into their Group 6 cars, detune them and go racing at Le Mans.

Granted, everytime the FIA/FISA/whoever has tried to change sportscar rules to allow use of F1 engines (1968, 1972, 1990/91) it has fell completely flat on its arse and ruined sportscar racing (or you could argue that the 68 rule changes prompted the 917 and 512's, ushering in a goldern era), but, if it meant that Ferrari came back (which it probably wouldn't) then i'd be well up for it. It would be interesting if someone went for a big 5.0 V12 and pitted it against a 1.6 V6, just out of curiosity.

Whatever they do agree on, they need to get someone to build LMP1's because there will only be 7 at the Silverstone 6 Hours. I know Porsche are joing in in 2014, and Audi reckon they will stay on but I can't see Audi and Porsche going toe to toe for longer than 1 year, it would just be a waste of VW's money that they would be unlikely to overlook. If this did mean Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes bult LMP1's, even if they were only secondary to their F1 efforts, it couldn't hurt.

Another way you could look at it is the ACO are French, there are no French entries, Renault are French, the ACO spoke to them, Renault said we don't want to develop another type of engine, the ACO adapted the rules to suit. It wouldn't be unheard of.

I don't think there is really anything especially favouring F1 V6s. While the engines in both categories might be going in the same direction, I doubt you can just tune F1 V6 and win Le Mans with it instead of a completely bespoke solution. I think the possibility might be more attactive for private teams, incase Pure or someone else ever actually builds engines.

It would be interesting if someone went for a big 5.0 V12 and pitted it against a 1.6 V6, just out of curiosity.

I like that it's at least possible in theory, but if you consider those draconian limits I just posted... it wouldn't be a very exciting race.

I know Porsche are joing in in 2014, and Audi reckon they will stay on but I can't see Audi and Porsche going toe to toe for longer than 1 year, it would just be a waste of VW's money that they would be unlikely to overlook.

It seems both brands being in creates a "win-win" situation and that is what they want, according to many comments and most recently by Wolfgang Durheimer here:

Wouldn't be the first time this sort of weirdness happens in motorsport: PSA's Citroen and Peugeot were in WRC for several years as direct competitors.

Another way you could look at it is the ACO are French, there are no French entries, Renault are French, the ACO spoke to them, Renault said we don't want to develop another type of engine, the ACO adapted the rules to suit. It wouldn't be unheard of.

Little in the conspiracy theory territory imho, but these rules have been in the making since the summer of 2010, when Peugeot was still in, but Renault (as the F1 team) actually was present in the initial meeting at least. See the list of participants of the "MINUTES OF THE LMP CONSTRUCTORS MEETING JUNE, 30th 2010" here: http://www.mulsannes...newsjuly10.html

To be honest, I don't want it to happen. If someone purposefully puts that into the regulations (which they HAVEN'T), it's a return to the early 1990s when cynical attempts were made to siphon away manufacturers from sportscars and into F1, killing Group C in the process. With the costs involved, it won't be like the 1970s when lots of teams were able to buy Cosworth DFVs to slot into their Group 6 cars, detune them and go racing at Le Mans.

Modern racing is nothing like the 1970s, but it ain't the early '90s either. The money that was being spent by Honda and Renault in those days was insane. Nowadays engine development seems to play quite a small part in Grand Prix racing's concerns, although this might be just the effects of the 2007-13 "freeze".

I wonder how high up the grid you have to go these days to find an F1 team with a budget as big as Audi's or Toyota's. Mercedes, possibly?

If I were being cynical, I'd say Jean Todt is trying to find customers for the products of his near-disastrous engine revolution for 2014. These economies of scale don't just build themselves. F1's 2014 rules have been built with so many compromises and vested interests that I could well imagine that the engines won't be ideal in the competitive sense. Whatever, this uncertainty won't be good for teams without a factory engine programme. Given that the whole future of F1's regulations appears to hinge on how many teams Renault/Mecachrome will be able to supply, I can see a lot more frustration on the horizon.

They are certainly heavily promoting the '6 Hours of Silverstone' - should be a good weekend with Classic Endurance Racing and FRenault 3.5 in support, a good variation. However, looks like rain is back on the forecast for the end of the week.

Whatever Toyota's budget is, for this season I think it will considerably less, since full WEC wasn't originally their plan until Case: Peugeot happened and of course they're running only one car. Plans changed, but I doubt the budget changed.